The USCIRF was, as the ACLU reported, created and guided by ‘special interests’ and has a history of deep anti-Muslim bias,

[S]ince its inception, the commission’s been beset by controversy. People who watch the commission closely say it was created to satisfy special interests, which has led to bias in the commission’s work. Past commissioners and staff have reported that the commission is “rife, behind-the-scenes, with ideology and tribalism.” They’ve said that commissioners focus “on pet projects that are often based on their own religious background.” In particular, past commissioners and staff reported ”an anti-Muslim bias runs through the Commission’s work.”

In this context it is not surprising that a Zuhdi Jasser should be appointed. However, the biased nature of the USCIRF does not take away from the very troubling aspects of Jasser’s appointment, no US governmental organization should be used and abused in this manner.

What is interesting this time around is that all pretense to objectivity has fallen and the ‘work’ of the USCIRF will forever be tainted.

A petition calling on the Senators to rescind Jasser’s appointment has received nearly 3000 signatures, (I urge everyone to sign it and pass it along. We need to be more active than the hate-mongers!)

In response to the large push back against the biased nature of the USCIRF and Jasser’s appointment, Jasser is trying to hit back, smearing everyone who sheds light on his alliance with hate-mongers and anti-Freedom positions as evil, fifth-column “Islamists.”

Classic case of projecting while deflecting

On the only medium that will let Jasser spew his fact-less innuendo unopposed, i.e Right-Wing media such as “The Daily Caller,” Jasser says,

“You could actually use the list of people protesting us, it’s a pretty good list of some of the leaders of the Islamist movement in America.”

No surprise here, what else do you expect from the main protagonist of what has been lampooned as a bigoted, fear-mongering anti-Muslim film: The Third Jihad.

The only problem for May and Jasser is that it wasn’t only Muslim organizations (or ‘Islamists’ as they would have it) but also non-Muslim organizations calling on the Senators to rescind Jasser’s appointment. It was a veritable coalition of Muslim and non-Muslim civic and religious organizations:

More than 50 Muslim and non-Muslim civic and religious groups asked leading senators on Thursday (April 12) to rescind the appointment of an outspoken Muslim activist, Zuhdi Jasser, to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

But facts, those pesky things, why let them get in the way right? So, Jasser goes on to say,

Jasser contends, however, that the real enemy of religious freedom is the coalition of groups opposing him.

Classic projection and deflection. Instead of answering the very real concerns leveled against him, Jasser clams up, hoping the “Islamist” label will stick on his opponents and that the attention will subside.

To this day Jasser has not answered the following very specific concerns expressed by those dismayed that he would even been considered for the USCIRF:

1.) Most problematically, Jasser allies himself with and receives funding from anti-Muslim organizations and personalities who work tirelessly to curb the religious and civil liberties of Muslims in the USA.

Jasser’s organization has received funding, to the tune of $100,000 from a major backer of Rick Santorum, Foster Friess. Friess was featured as one of the major backers of Islamophobic organizations in the Center for American Progress‘s groundbreaking report, Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America.

According to the Washington Post,

“Jasser received a $100,000 donation from Christian conservative financier Foster Friess, who is now bankrolling the super-PAC supporting Rick Santorum’s presidential bid. Jasser declined to elaborate on exactly how much Friess had given AIFD, though he said the financier contributed $70,000 to his organization in 2010 for a Muslim youth retreat hosted by the group. (Friess told MSNBC that he was backing Santorum because he is ‘incredibly versed in one of the number one issues of our time—and that is violent Islamic extremism.’)”

Jasser told Mother Jones that the AIFD had accepted $5,000 from the Center for Security Policy:

“Jasser said his group has also received a one-time, unsolicited donation of $10,000 from the Clarion Fund, which is associated with Aish HaTorah, a right-wing Israeli group described by Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic as ‘just about the most fundamentalist movement in Judaism today.’

The Clarion Fund has released several films that warn of Muslim conspiracies to reestablish a global caliphate. Jasser is a Clarion board member and in 2008 narrated a documentary bankrolled by the group called The Third Jihad, which darkly warns that Muslim extremists are attempting to “infiltrate and dominate America,” a conspiracy implicating most prominent American Muslim organizations. The New York Times reported that the film was shown to thousands of NYPD officers as part of their counterterrorism training, which the police department later apologized for.”

2.) In another blow to the religious liberties and freedoms of American Muslims, Jasser’s organization the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) supports state wide legislative bans on Muslim personal religious practice relating to: marriage, prayer, wills, etc. Jasser’s organization has published press releases “applauding” such legislation, which many, including US Courts have considered unconstitutional infringements on the religious liberties of Muslims.

3.) Jasser was outspoken in his opposition to an interfaith and Islamic Center in Manhattan, supporting efforts to block it from being built, remarking that, “This center is trying to change the narrative of 9/11 — to diminish what happened at Ground Zero.”

4.) Jasser’s advocacy and support for the NYPD’s illegal profiling and secret surveillance program targeting Muslims for monitoring at their houses of worship, businesses and universities is not only unconscionable but contradicts the USCIRF’s purported goals of reviewing “the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally and to make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress.”

Jasser deflects from the above points and questions about his sordid relationship with those who undermine religious freedom here in the US because his real purpose is to be a shill for the Right-Wing propaganda machine.

Articles like the one in the Daily Caller are not meant to inform or provide analysis, but are geared specifically to justifying Right-Wing and Conservative causes. The Conservative audience is expected to swallow them whole and regurgitate it to the rest of the sheep, preserving and securing the echo chamber.

You may also be right. As a medical doctor, Jasser does already have plenty of money. Maybe he really does believe everything he says. He could be delusional.

upb

The bottom line of this all – is that Jasser is an extremely complex individual. I don’t think he’s in it for monetary benefit – he is a medical doctor by trade, so he’s already rich to begin with.
I think that he has some sort of messianic complex – he truly thinks he is on some mission from God; he uses emotional blackmail with all his audiences – painting himself as an outcast from his own community; He often uses his children as props in his writings and PR appearances.
Movies like the Third Jihad are unfortunately easily digestible for those who have little or no knowledge of Islam.
P.S. His Father in Law is a Board President of CAIR, so as much as he likes to bash the organization, he can’t even convince his own family that his cause is right.http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/03/muslim-group-leader-nypd-thanks-spying-us-zuhdi-jasser

He takes money from Sheldon Adelson, Foster Friess, Frank Gaffney – and his facebook friends list is a who’s who of the Islamophobic community. You’re only as good as the company you keep.

You’re welcome. I hope you enjoy the book. Its very well written, and it does an excellent job of debunking the idea that Islam is the cause of the conflict or even that Islam is inherently more violent than any other religion.

Ali M. Haider

BTW, trivia question for you … which two of the four writers of Fear, Inc. had Consensual American-Islamic Relations with Sami al-Arian’s daughter?

Man, I love it, how PIJ parents are so open minded! Makes me feel so all optimistic about the future.

Reynardine

John, flush your brains.

Truth Spinner, I know of neither any Islamic nor any other country that has peace and justice.

And all you Caliphatophobes, if even the Muslim-majority countries there are now have not evinced the slightest tendency to form a caliphate, what the Hell makes you think anyone could get it together for the whole world?

http://twitter.com/bobbyV_89 bobbyv_89

@CriticalDragon1177

Thank you so much for linking us to all that information. I’m especially grateful for the link to the book “A world without Islam” and I look forward to reading it. Might help me with my IR thesis.

Regarding Jasser/greed/double-crossing, I was actually thinking the same thing. Watch him get screwed over so bad.

true Islamic “conservatism” using sharia as the guide. Wonder why the MSM, politicians, and looniverse ignore these people? they lecture at universities, attend conventions, may even be speaking as a follow up to Terry Jones at the Republican Liberty Caucus if North East Florida. Has a relationship with the college group Young Americans for Liberty and has worked to create a relationship between YAL and the MSA with some measure of success. Giving muslims on campus a new group of defenders of their rights. YAL is the fastest growing campus group in the US. OH WAIT!!! that’s right, because they study and understand sharia rather than renouncing their faith for an audience, and validating people’s hatreds.

http://thepenofawanderingstranger.com/personal/ Jack Cope

^Like buses they seem to come in droves… all at once when you’ve been waiting for so long. Anyway, I’ll address Mr Lore’s comment, Mr Pork is as usual speaking drivel.

As has been said it is perfectly possible to support Muslims without ‘selling out’ to whatever guy wants to use you. You know, to have a bit of personal integrity. The following for example is my own statement against Al-Queda etc. Don’t worry loonies, I made it easy for you to misrepresent my statement and even did it for you at the end:

Trouble is for people like Mr Lore is that nothing except complete compliance with whatever they they believe in is acceptable with no deviation. Sounds rather like the extremists they so hate doesn’t it?

If you don’t toe the line then you are all kinds of names and tags, apologist, sympathizer, whatever. Personally according to my various detractors I am a Muslim-Crusader-Jew-Nazi-Communist-Homosexual-Capitalist-Jihadist-Homophobe Traitor/Shill to Western values. And extremely schizophrenic.

Isa

“He said in a recent debate with a local imam that he believed if the Prophet Muhammad (saw) was alive today, he would denounce Islamism and embrace “American Free Market Principles””

LOL. That’s the funniest thing I have seen all day! So the Prophet Muhammad was a free-market capitalist, proto-Randite. This is too good.

Dawahtweet

@truthseeker u have been deceived by false information, whch us contrary to ur name.Go and read the quran.jst because islam at odds with corrupt ideologies,islam is bad?(ofcourse islam terrorises ppl like you)falsehood is always terrorised by truth and justice.
Go and read the quran its unlike any other religious book,its a constitution for humanity.
Tell me wht terror is in the quran? You are jst like a leech wch sucks all the crap frm jihad watch,and atlas drugs.and itself gets infected.

If you wanna debate or have any questions plz feel free to ask question criticize islam, but be ready to hear the truth.
On twitter @DawahTweet

CAIR on terrorism: http://www.cair.com/Portals/0/CAIR%20on%20Terrorism.pdf. If you don’t want to click on the PDF, it starts as follows: “CAIR issued 84 releases in which we specifically condemn terrorism during the period from 1994-2008. The organization’s formula on terrorism is simple and comprehensive: CAIR condemns terrorism
whenever it happens, wherever it happens, whoever commits it.”

I’ll admit that in 2002, one of CAIR’s condemnations of a suicide bombing was inappropriate in a few ways, but since then I think that CAIR has been much clearer in unequivocal denunciations of terrorism.

Truth Seeker

There has never been perfect peace in the world but without Islam it could be more peaceful.Islam/Mohammad brought terror into the world which still continues.Tell me about one Muslim country which can boast of peace,justice and humanity.Like the virus,once it gets into a healthy body,it tries to destroy that host body. .Mohammad left the legacy of terror through his personal example and his text book of terror called Quran.Islam and peace can never co-exist,Period.America should give the same status to Islam as of Nazi-ism,although it is worse.

responding to what I wrote about Jasser perhaps doing it for the money,
you wrote
————————————————————————
I have to think so. He knows his arguments are weak, and maybe he belives some things, but honestly look at all the money he gets and from where, that is really what makes me question. You know what I mean?
————————————————————————

You maybe correct. One would assume that as a Muslim, Jasser would have good reason to want the “stealth Jihad/creeping sharia” conspiracy theory to be baseless and in actuality it is. I’ve come to see Jasser as a useful idiot, but maybe he’s not doing it because he thinks its the right thing, maybe he’s doing it out of greed. What he’s doing is still idiotic through, helping people who in the end are likely to double cross him, regardless of the motive.

No. You need to wake up. Wake up from your nightmare. I’m wide awake. Most Muslims are not bad people, and there’s no good reason to think that Islam is at war with us. There’s also no good reason to think that Muslim fanatics will ever take over the west.

Contrary to what you may think, its possible for someone to be both a Muslim and a supporter of the rights of non Muslims without endorsing unconstitutional measures and without allying themselves with anti Muslim bigots.

Take a look at this. Its Sheila Musaji’s website. Notice that many of the stories are about extremism done in the name of Islam, and none of them, including the one’s not written by her, approve of it.

Also there are a lot things that have been said about CAIR that are simply not true. The same is true for the Muslim Brotherhood. As for Al Shabaab, I’ve never heard of them, and Al Qaeda is a genuine Muslim extremist organization whose members have murdered innocent people. Now that said,

By the way, I recommend you read the same book I recommended to John as well. And just in case you don’t know there are anti Muslim bigots out there that assume that Jasser is part of the “stealth jihad” as well, just like they think that CAIR is part of the “stealth jihad,” and you know why? Because he’s a Muslim.

Rocky Lore

Would LoonWatch rather have someone from terror apologist CAIR instead of Dr. Jasser? How about a supporter of Al Qaeda, Al Shabaab or the Muslim Brotherhood?

john

you people need to wake up and look at what the muslim world is all about, but you won’t anbd you people will be the first to go under the blade. I pity you poor fools.

Averroe’s Ghost

@Critical Dragon1177,

I have to think so. He knows his arguments are weak, and maybe he belives some things, but honestly look at all the money he gets and from where, that is really what makes me question. You know what I mean?

Young & Free

“He said in a recent debate with a local imam that he believed if the Prophet Muhammad (saw) was alive today, he would denounce Islamism and embrace “American Free Market Principles””

You wrote,
———————————————————————-
I’m tired of this sell out…i think he do not really believe in what hes doingf…Jasser, leave the bigots
———————————————————————-

You think he’s doing this for the money?

upb

He definitely knows what he’s doing…he lives in our city and has been wreaking havoc here for years. He said in a recent debate with a local imam that he believed if the Prophet Muhammad (saw) was alive today, he would denounce Islamism and embrace “American Free Market Principles”

made the sell out pic

I nominate uncle tom jasser to have a permanent place on the loonwatch header next to robert spencer. That’s who he is and that’s where he belongs. You don’t have to be non-Muslim to be an Islamophobe. He’s not a shill, he’s one of them.

Averroe’s Ghost

I’m tired of this sell out…i think he do not really believe in what hes doingf…Jasser, leave the bigots